LISTEN: Sun Ra Inspired “Departure Guide of the 7 Sisters” Out Today
Hear the new track off the Meshell Ndegeocello-curated Red Hot & Ra: The Magic City, out April 12th
This Friday will see the release of the latest title in the Red Hot Organization’s 34-year-strong music series – a Meshell Ndegeocello-curated tribute to astral jazz titan Sun Ra.
Entitled Red Hot + Ra: The Magic City, the collection will be released this Friday, April 12th. And under the aegis of the Grammy-winning Ndegeocello, the album moves beyond the formulaic paces of simple interpretation by completely reimagining the sound and vision of the man born Sonny Blount. Joining Meshell on this journey is a multi-generational ensemble of Ra-minded musicians who’ve come together to travel the spaceways.
Among the players appearing alongside Ndegeocello on Red Hot + Ra: Magic City are Marshall Allen, the 99 year-old leader of Ra’s legendary Arkestra, playing the saxophone and the EWI; Pink Siifu, the (also-) Birmingham-born hip-hop/punk-jazz vocalist and bandleader; jazz saxophonists, Immanuel Wilkins and Darius Jones; the vocalist-composer Justin Hicks, a key member of Meshell’s live band; the drummers Deantoni Parks and Kojo Roney, the 19 year-old son of saxophonist Antoine and nephew of the late trumpeter Wallace Roney; bassist Rashaan Carter, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Bogie, guitarist Christopher Bruce, violinist Eddy Kwon, keyboardists Daniel Mintseris and Jebin Bruni, a longtime member of Meshell’s band, and others.
Red Hot + Ra: Magic City was produced by Ndegeocello and Hector Castillo, who also designed the album’s numerous soundscapes, as well as mixed its disparate unstable elements (a multitude of original and sampled voices, synths and soundscapes, horns and reeds both cross-cutting and in-harmony).
One of the contributing factors in getting Red Hot + Ra off the ground was Ndegeocello’s discovery of the John Szwed biography Space Is The Place: The Lives And Times Of Sun Ra, which was first published in 1998 but received a timely reissue during the 2020 lockdown. It was a book that altered the way the bassist listened to the composer’s music.
“I haven’t been the same since reading that book,” says Meshell. “I think it’s what inspired [2023’s great Grammy-winning album] The Omnichord Real Book, in the sense of, ‘what happens when you’re no longer driven by youth?’ Sun Ra’s music is a living organism, and once you immerse yourself in his work, his life, you recognize there’s a fork in the road — that you really have to make choices, because there’s so many other realms and dimensions to explore Musically.”
The choices made on Red Hot + Ra: Magic City are to honor the legacy but also to live in the moment, offering what Ndegeocello calls a “present-time experience,” a way towards self-actualization in the seeming despair of our society.
“I want people to walk away [from listening to the album by] understanding that [life] is really of your own design,” Ndegeocello says. “The mind is the only part we really have control over, and do the best to live the life you want to live.”
Today, Red Hot releases “Departure Guide of the 7 Sisters,” a track inspired by Sun Ra composition “Pleidas.” This single features drums and electronics by Deantoni Parks (Andre 3000 live band/New Blue Sun LP),vocals from Jade Hicks, Christopher Bruce on guitar and Meshell Ndgeocello on keyboards. It is the last single to be released before the album comes out this Friday.
Red Hot + Ra – The Magic City is the third release in a series of tributes to Sun Ra, with future projects promised by Kronos Quartet, Om’Mas Keith and Madlib (!) on deck for later dates.
This also marks the third time Meshell has been part of a Red Hot Org. release, the first two being Stolen Moments (1994) and Red Hot + Riot (2002).
Listen to “Departure Guide Of The 7 Sisters” below and pre-order Red Hot + Ra, featuring cover art by singer Cécile McLorin Salvant, here.
Red Hot + Ra – The Magic City tracklist:
1. Solipsistic Panacea (Black Antiques)
2. Departure Guide Of The 7 Sisters
3. Bedlam Blues
4. #9 Venus The Living Myth
5. El-Soul The Companion, Traveler
6. LQ1TY – 29 Years
7. Yet Differently Not- Mars Hall
8. Reproductive Manatees – Sunny Said Up!
9. The World Of Shadow
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